Tuesday, February 28, 2012

HIV Infection Rates in Hetero Black Women

Something feels fishy about the stats here. Look at that again. Black hetero women have infection rates almost on par with gay hispanic men, more than double any other hetero group, and triple hetero white and hispanic women. Take a look at some HIV basic stats here. You can even find metro area breakdowns, and honestly some smaller metro areas in the South have infection rates higher than large metro areas in the North or out West. It's probably from higher concentrations of blacks, but we're talking about smaller cities, not giant metroplexes. It's not condom use that is causing the higher infection rates as black condom use is supposedly higher than other races. This is kind of like the herpes virus where blacks have a significantly higher infection rate as nearly half of all black women have herpes. The links and online articles discuss the same mumbo jumbo of education and awareness, and the blame is also laid at the feet of gay black men on the DL. Is that really all there is? Could there be something more out there? I think there is, but modern PC society won't let it be said.

Let's do some math. Blacks make up 12.5% of America, so there are 38.75 mil blacks. There are slightly more black females than males so let's say 19 mil black males. Per the GSS, 4.4% of black men are gay, so we're down to 835K. Roughly 25% of gay black men have HIV, so we're now down to 209K. There's just one problem with that number: half of all gay men say they have never slept with a woman. We're now down to 104K HIV infected gay black men who could be sleeping with a woman (keep in mind 25K of them have slept with only 1 woman). You mean to tell me that hetero black women are getting HIV at a rate of 5,400 a year from the roughly 80-104K gay black men in the entire nation who have HIV that are on the mysterious "DL". I bring this up because that is a big 'excuse' given as to why black women's HIV infection rates are sooooooo much higher than all other heteros. I'm calling hogwash, but before I do, gay black men, please wrap it up before you kill off each other with the high infection & transmission rates.

Here is my theory of causation behind the high infection rates for black females.

1. HIV has moved down the socioeconomic ladder. It used to be a gay virus, killing all income levels, but with govt awareness programs, education scaring the shit out of a generation, early high death rates (remember the AIDS quilt), smart people (who usually are middle class & up) took preventative measures. It's now poor people, and black women happen to occupy quite a bit of space near or below the poverty line. Black women getting HIV now are way down in the 'out of sight poor' class. We're talking about 5,400 a year nationwide, which could fill a college hockey rink. Let's keep this in perspective: 130K drug & alcohol addicts die a year in America.
2. Rape. White male on black female rape is almost nonexistent in America. If a black woman is getting raped, it is by a black male which just happens to be the only hetero male group on the top infected subgroup chart. You also have higher incarceration rates of black males, which is where some hetero black males probably get HIV. It would be interesting if police rape kits also automatically tested women for HIV. There are thousands of black women raped each year. Why doesn't anyone bring this up? Oh wait, it would expose the insane rape rates of black males.
3. Informal prostitution. How many out of sight poor black women are turning tricks part time? How many are 'barter' prostitutes? How many are forcing their johns to use condoms? Giving hummers to anyone or everyone in the neighborhood for some scratch opens one up to anything that the neighborhood carries.